Winston-Salem Open: Andy Murray suffers first-round loss to Sandgren as singles comeback continues
Andy Murray on Monday fell in the first round of the ATP Winston-Salem Open, where the three-time Grand Slam champion was giving his surgically repaired hip just its second test in singles.
Britain’s Murray, who feared in January that his hip trouble would end his career, accepted a wild card into this week’s tournament in North Carolina after falling in his singles comeback in Cincinnati last week.
The 32-year-old showed glimpses of his once-dominant self, but was inconsistent in a 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 loss to 73rd-ranked American Tennys Sandgren in a match lasting 2 hours and 10 minutes.
“Some things were a bit better today I think,” Murray said. “I was hitting the ball a bit cleaner than I did maybe in Cincinnati... I feel like I moved fairly well to some drop shots, which maybe last week I wasn’t running to. So there’s some good things in there but also some stuff I would like to do better.”
Murray did not even reach the court until after 10 pm, thanks to a lengthy rain delay that pushed back his start time by more than three hours.
Sandgren gutted out a tough service hold in an opening game that went to deuce nine times, saving one break point as they...
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